Former IA pilots resort to RTI to get the information from aviation ministry

14 Oct, 2012

Members of an association of former Indian Airlines pilots the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association (ICPA) have filed repeated RTI applications with the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MCA) to get the desired information. The members of ICPA alleged that the management has not been issuing circulars officially and their only source of information was media reports. The Ministry on the other hand claims that members of ICPA were misusing the RTI Act by filing repeated applications and asking frivolous queries such as who was responsible for stopping the pilots’ privilege of travelling free as an Additional Crew Member (ACM). A senior ministry official stated that the ICPA had also written a letter addressed to the aviation minister stating that the privilege was stopped on his instructions. The official emphasised that they have been contradicting their own RTI application because if they want to know through the RTI application as to who was responsible for stopping their ACM travel then why did they allege the minister was responsible?